Work began on-site this week at Worcester ’s new state-of-the-art sports centre, but the City Council is keen to stress that it’s business as usual at the existing facilities in St John’s .

The new sports centre is being built and paid for by Sainsbury’s as part of the deal to create a new supermarket on the site of the existing sports centre. When it opens in August 2008 the new centre will feature a range of top class facilities but Alan New, the Recreation Business Manager for Worcester City Council is keen to point out that the current centre remains very much open and operating as normal: “Our existing centre still has a great deal to offer to anyone looking to maintain and improve their health and fitness. All the classes we run are continuing and all the facilities we have will remain open. There is no possibility of us closing before the new centre is up and running. Some centre users have been asking me when we are closing but I can assure everyone that we are very much open, and as the new facility is being built on a different site I would envisage very little if any disruption of our service to our customers”

St John’s Sports Centre is a dual use facility that operates in tandem with it’s sister site at Nunnery Wood Sport Complex. Last year it scored almost 80% in an assessment by Quest, the national quality standard for the management of leisure facilities. That score ranked them joint top in the UK for ‘dual-use’ centres, of which there are 130 nationally that have currently achieved Quest registration.

Mr New added that all the staff at St John’s are committed to ensuring the high standards are maintained during the life of the existing building and would be carried on when they move across to the new facility. “It’s very exciting to be getting a new building on the main road but in the meantime we still have great facilities at St John’s and there is no way we will be compromising on the quality we have achieved either here while we are still open or after we have moved into the new centre.”